Method of and device for service discovery and selection

ABSTRACT

A method of and a device for operating a service discovery and selection function in a telecommunications system, wherein the service discovery and selection function registers a service profile of a service provided by at least one service producer of the telecommunications system. The service profile among others includes consistency group information and proximity information. The consistency group information identifies instances of the service sharing a same state and the proximity information identifies deployment of the instances in the telecommunications system. The service discovery and selection function, from the service profile, based on service selection criteria, selects a single service instance of the service for a service consumer of the telecommunications system requesting the service, and identifies the selected service instance to the service consumer.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a 35 U.S.C. § 371 national stage application forInternational Application No. PCT/EP2018/063216, entitled “METHOD OF ANDDEVICE FOR SERVICE DISCOVERY AND SELECTION”, filed on May 18, 2018, thedisclosures and contents of which are hereby incorporated by referencein their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to the provision of services ina telecommunications system, and more specifically to the provision ofservices in a Service Based Architecture, SBA, telecommunicationssystem, such as a Fifth Generation, 5G, telecommunications system.

BACKGROUND

The 5G telecommunications core network is an example of a Service BasedArchitecture, SBA, in which Network Functions, NF, provide one ormultiple services to entities requiring telecommunications services froma particular NF. In turn, an NF may also request telecommunicationsservices from another NF, for example.

The concept of provision of services between entities in atelecommunications system or telecommunications network is not limitedto strictly service organised architectures. The service concept may bewidely used in data communication and/or data exchange and/or dataprocessing environments, wherein one or multiple service producers orservice providers provide services for supporting data processing by oneor multiple service consumers.

The provision of services enables a more flexible development of newservices, as it becomes possible to connect to other components withoutintroducing specific new interfaces, for example.

Services may create multiple service instances at a same or differentlocations when they are needed. At run time, a service instance is aninstantiation in the execution environment, for example. The number ofservice instances may vary, among others due to in/out scaling,failures, programmed maintenance, etc. In the 5G SBA, for example, atpresent, available services, i.e. service providers, for identifyingthemselves to service consumers, may be registered in a Network or NFRepository Function, NRF, by providing the NF profile or NF serviceprofile that includes information for one or multiple NF services, andone or multiple service instances for each NF service. The NF profilemay be provided at registration of a service provider or serviceproducer in an NRF or, alternatively, may be stored in the NRF atconfiguration thereof.

If a service producer registers multiple instances of a service, thenthe service consumer needs to select a respective service instance forexecuting a requested service. Such selection may be based on severalcriteria, such as balancing the load among available service instances,traffic demands, and others. In case the selected service instance isnot available, for example due to a failure, the service consumer needsto select other instance(s) of that service, for example.

As the number of service instances generally will not be static, i.e.the number of service instances may vary over time, service instanceselection may become rather complex. In particular, when the number ofrequired service instances exceeds the maximum suitable number ofservice instances of a particular service. For capacity reasons, serviceinstances of different service providers need to be registered and madeavailable for selection by a service consumer. For making a properservice instance selection, from a consumer perspective, any serviceinstance of any service provider should have the same functional view.That is, the service consumer may select a different service providerinstance, and then it should get a coherent behaviour, that is, a samebehaviour as if the same or previous service provider instance was used.

Service instances, as a result of their execution, may store aparticular data context or state, which is stored in a so-called staterepository. When selecting another instance of a requested service, forexample due to failure of a current service instance, data context orstate consistency has to be ensured. Accordingly, the selection shouldprioritize that the data context (state) is not lost. However, theservice consumer does not have any information to know whetherrespective service instances do share a same state repository.

As mentioned previously, services may create multiple service instancesat different or same locations. Hence, service instances may be createdat different geographical locations. For geographical redundancy, alsoabbreviated as geored, reasons it may even be required that serviceinstances are created in different locations. For example, for a sameservice, instances may be required in Data Centers separated at aparticular distance which, for security and reliability reasons, isconsidered appropriate in case of disasters, or may be required to becreated in different regions.

The service consumer needs to be able to select, as much as possible,service instances from the zone or area where the service consumer islocated, or closest to its location, unless failures, critical loadcongestion, etc. This to minimize network resources and signallinglatency, for example.

Accordingly, there is a need for a solution for a service consumer torequest service from a proper service instance, among others whiletaking into account service instance failures, service instance overloadprotection, traffic demands, geographical redundancy, and ensuring dataconsistency.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect, there is provided a method of operating a servicediscovery and selection function in a telecommunications system, themethod comprising the steps of:

-   -   registering, with the service discovery and selection function,        a service profile of a service provided by at least one service        producer, the service profile among others comprising        consistency group information and proximity information, wherein        the consistency group information identifies instances of the        service sharing a same state and the proximity information        identifying deployment of the service instances;    -   selecting, by the service discovery and selection function, from        the service profile, a single service instance of the service        for a service consumer requesting the service, based on service        selection criteria accessible to the service discovery and        selection function, and    -   identifying, by the service discovery and selection function,        the selected service instance to the service consumer.

According to the method of the present disclosure, each service providerregisters itself by the service discovery and selection function with aservice profile that identifies instances of a particular servicesharing a same state and information identifying deployment of theseservice instances in the telecommunications system. This consistencygroup information and proximity information, among other information, ispart of the service profile of a particular service registered with theservice discovery and selection function. In this way, a serviceproducer or service providers makes itself ‘visible’ to potentialservice consumers.

The service consumer, when requesting a particular service, is nowprovided by the service discovery and selection function with one singleservice instance from a profile of a requested service registered withthe service discovery and selection function, which service instance isselected in a selection process based on previously stored serviceselection criteria. These service selection criteria include serviceselection criteria pertaining to a particular service consumer, such asgeographic information, and other non-functional service instancerequirements pertaining to service instance selection taking account ofload distribution and overload protection, scaling in/out based ontraffic demands, ensuring data consistency in case of failures and georedundancy, as well as potentially other deployment or robustnessservice instance selection requirements.

In the context of the present disclosure, providing the single serviceinstance to the service consumer may include providing an identificationfrom which the service consumer is able to retrieve the selected serviceinstance with the respective service provider, or may include that acomplete service instance profile information is provided to the serviceconsumer for accessing the selected service instance.

Hence, with the method according to the present disclosure, the need fora service consumer to be aware of such non-functional service instancerequirements is effectively avoided, and thereby the need forimplementing rather complex additional functionality or logic with aservice consumer, to be able to handle the selection of the mostappropriate service instance.

The service selection criteria may be stored and updated by a serviceconsumer itself or by an authorized operations and maintenance center,O&M, entity or otherwise.

With the present solution, the service discovery and selection functionimplements the service logic to configure/update service instanceselection criteria and to be able to select the most suitable serviceinstance. This service logic may be dynamically updated or amendedwithout impacting the service consumer. This logic is common for all theservices (both consumer and providers), and simplifies development ofservices and the deployments thereof.

Hence, service profile changes pertaining to a registered serviceprofile from a service producer and service profile changes pertainingto a selected service instance to the service consumer may be handled bythe service discovery and selection function.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the consistency groupinformation comprises a plurality of consistency groups and a respectiveconsistency group identifies all instances of a service or differentservices sharing a same state. As service instances in a sameconsistency group share a same data context or state, a service consumermay require or subscribe to a particular consistency group for selectinga service instance in case of failure of a currently selected serviceinstance, for example. Hence ensuring data context or state consistency.

In a further embodiment, the proximity information identifies where theservice instances are deployed in the telecommunications system,allowing to select the service instance based on at least one ofgeographical distance of the service producer or service provider andthe service consumer, for optimizing network resources and signallinglatency, for example.

In the context of the 5G SBA, for example, proximity levels of arespective service instance, among others, may comprise a Data Centerlevel, a Region level and a GeoArea level.

The data context or state information of a respective service instancemay be stored at a state repository accessible to the service discoveryand selection function.

In an embodiment of the method according to the present disclosure, theservice discovery and selection function comprises a management entity,a discovery entity, and a service instance selection entity, theregistering is performed at the management entity, requesting theservice by a service consumer and identifying the selected serviceinstance to the service consumer is performed at the discovery entity,and selecting a service instance is performed at the service instanceselection entity.

The service instance selection entity may be performed as part of thediscovery entity, for example.

With this embodiment, the method according to the present disclosure canbe easily implemented, in an already proposed Network RepositoryFunction, NRF, of a 5G SBA, by adding the service instance selectionentity and by a slight modification of the management entity and thediscovery entity. However, the method according to the presentdisclosure can also be implemented as a function that is completely orpartly independent from the NRF.

In a further embodiment, the service profile and the service selectioncriteria are stored at the management entity, wherein the serviceinstance selection entity accesses the management entity for selectingthe service instance.

The person skilled in the art will appreciate that the respectiveentities may be provided or implemented as a respective service orservice function in a telecommunications system.

In another embodiment of the method according to the present disclosure,wherein the service discovery and selection function comprises aregistration entity, a discovery entity, and a service instanceselection entity, having access to a unified data repository, UDR, ofthe telecommunications system, wherein the UDR stores service profilesand service selection criteria, the registering is performed at theregistration entity storing the service profile at the UDR, requestingthe service by a service consumer and identifying the selected serviceinstance to the service consumer is performed at the discovery entity,and selecting a service instance is performed at the service instanceselection entity by accessing the service profile and service selectioncriteria stored at the UDR.

As access to the UDR may be standardized, multi-vendor independency ofthe service discovery and selection function entities or services can beachieved by the present disclosure, by storing data context or stateinformation of service instances at the UDR.

This makes all the necessary data for service provisioning independentlyaccessible to potential service providers and service consumers, and mayprovide added value.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided aservice discovery and selection function device arranged for operatingin a telecommunications system, the service discovery and selectionfunction device comprising:

-   -   a registering module, arranged for registering a service profile        of a service provided by at least one service producer of the        telecommunications system, the service profile among others        comprising consistency group information and proximity        information, wherein the consistency group information        identifies instances of the service sharing a same state and the        proximity information identifying deployment of the service        instances in the telecommunications system;    -   a selecting module, arranged for selecting, from the service        profile, a single service instance of the service for a service        consumer of the telecommunications system requesting the        service, based on service selection criteria accessible to the        service discovery and selection function, and    -   a discovery module, arranged for identifying, by the service        discovery and selection function, the selected service instance        to the service consumer.

It will be appreciated that the entities and modules disclosed may beimplemented as separate hardware and/or software modules and entities,and controlled by or executed in a processor or the like.

In a third aspect of the present disclosure, a computer program productis provided, comprising a computer readable storage medium, havinginstructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause theat least one processor to carry out the method according to a respectiveone of the first and second aspect of the present disclosure.

In the context of the present disclosure, the service producer and theservice consumer are any one of a service provided by thetelecommunications system, a Network Function, NF, of thetelecommunications system, a server operating with thetelecommunications system, and a node operating in thetelecommunications system.

The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of the disclosurewill be best understood from the following description referring to theattached drawings disclosing, by way of example and not as a limitation,an implementation of the service discovery and selection function inaccordance with the present disclosure in a present 5G SBA NRF. In thedrawings, like reference numerals denote identical parts or partsperforming an identical or comparable function or operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates part of the architecture of a fifthgeneration, 5G, telecommunication network, according to the prior art.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a service registration and discoveryprocedure in a service based architecture telecommunication network,according to the prior art.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates two different service instance poolswith respect to state maintenance, according to the prior art.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates two different network functions withservice instance pools, according to the prior art.

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates two different network functions withservice instance pools in two different geographical areas, according tothe prior art.

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates an implementation of a method accordingto the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates consistency groups and proximitylevels, according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates an implementation of a method accordingto the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 schematically illustrates an example of a service discovery andselection function device according to the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates part of the reference architecture 1 ofa fifth generation, 5G, Service Based Architecture, SBA,telecommunication network system, according to the prior art. The 5Gsystem architecture comprises the following Network Functions, NFs:

-   -   Authentication Server Function, AUSF, 6    -   Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF, 7    -   Data network, DN, e.g. operator services, Internet access or 3rd        party services, 5    -   Network Exposure Function, NEF, 12    -   NF Repository Function, NRF, 11    -   Policy Control Function, PCF, 10    -   Session Management Function, SMF, 8    -   Unified Data Management, UDM, 13    -   User Plane Function, UPF, 4    -   Application Function, AF, 9    -   User Equipment, UE, 2    -   (Radio) Access Network, (R)AN, 3.

A functional description of these network functions is specified inclause 6 of the 3GPP standard 23.501, “System Architecture for the 5Gsystem”, the contents of which are included herein, by reference.Specifically, in FIG. 1 , reference numeral 1 indicates the systemarchitecture for a 5G telecommunication network when in a roaming case.That is, the UE 2 is not operating in the home telecommunication networkwhere it originally belongs to, i.e. is registered. In the embodimentshown, it is assumed that the UE 2 is originally registered with a homenetwork 16, but is presently located in a visited network 15. Such arepresentation is shown merely for illustrative purposes and is not alimitation of the teachings according to the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a prior art service registration anddiscovery procedure in a the 5G SBA system shown in FIG. 1 . A serviceproducer or service provider NF 25, during registration 21,provides/updates an NF service profile 27 that includes one or multipleNF services, and one or multiple instances of each NF service. The NFservice profile 27 is to be maintained at the NRF 11 and may include thefollowing information:

-   -   NF instance identifier, ID    -   NF type    -   Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN, ID    -   Network Slice related Identifier(s) e.g. S-NSSAI, NSI ID    -   Fully Qualified Domain Name, FQDN, or Internet Protocol, IP,        address of NF    -   NF capacity information    -   NF Specific Service authorization information    -   Names of supported services    -   Endpoint information of instance(s) of each supported service    -   Identification of stored data/information

In subsequent step 22, a service consumer NF 26 queries the NRF 11 foravailable services and available service providers. After receiving aresponse from the NRF 11, the service consumer NF 26 requests a serviceinstance of a particular service from the service provider 25, indicatedby reference numeral 23. Subsequently a response 24 to the servicerequest 23 is received by the service consumer NF 26 from the serviceprovider 25, and the service consumer 26 may start to use, i.e. consume,the requested service, i.e. service instance, from the service provider25.

In some service deployments/distributions not all service instances of asame service will share the same context data or state information. Inthe event that a service consumer 26 needs to select an alternativeservice instance, for example in the case of a service instance failure,context data or state consistency has to be ensured. In other words,selection of an alternative service instance should prioritize that thedata context or state information will not be lost.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates two different service instance poolswith respect to service context data or state information of a singleservice 1, S1, 33. Instances a, b, c and d of S1 share a same staterepository 31. This means that if any one of the service instances a, b,c, d fails, another service instance sharing the particular staterepository 31 of this pool may be selected, and this service instancewill be able to recover the last state.

However, the S1 instances e, f, g, h do not share the state repository31. Instead, they share a different state repository 32. In such asituation, the consumer 26 should be aware of this difference whenselecting another service instance in case of failures, for example, asthe service instances a-d of S1 33 and e-h may not relate to the samedata context or state information.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates a system 40 with two different networkfunctions and different service instance pools. Alternative to thesystem 30 presented in FIG. 3 , service instances a-h of S1 33 may alsobe registered with two different NFs 41 and 42 respectively. This mayresult from scaling in/out based on traffic demands in the network. Insuch a scenario, the number of instances will also not be static andwill vary over time. Again, in case of a failure, the service consumerNF 26 needs to be aware of this service scenario, to select the mostappropriate service instance.

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates two different network functions withservice instance pools in two different geographical areas 51, 52. Thesystem as illustrated in FIG. 4 by reference numeral 40 may be spreadover one or more geographical areas. In FIG. 5 , the two networkfunctions 41, 42 are located in different geographical zones 51, 52,respectively. In some solutions, it is mandatory to ensure geographicalredundancy. In some solutions, the service consumer NF 26 needs to beable, wherever possible, to select a function in the same zone where itis located. If such a selection is not possible, it may select a serviceinstance from the network function closest to this location, unlessthere are other criteria, such as failure of original zone, criticalload congestion, to select a different zone. Hence, the service consumerNF 26 needs to have knowledge about the deployment of service instancesin the SBA.

Although only a local state repository is shown in the examples, theskilled person will appreciate that state repository may also becentralized.

Accordingly, in the prior art solutions presented above, in order to beable to select a most suitable service instance from a service providerby a service consumer, the latter needs to be provided with rathercomplex additional functionality or logic operating on service selectioncriteria such as geographic information and other non-functional serviceinstance requirements pertaining to service instance selection, fortaking account of load distribution and overload protection of serviceinstances, scaling in/out based on traffic demands, ensuring serviceinstance data consistency in case of failures, as well as possible other(future) deployment or robustness service instance selectionrequirements.

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates an implementation of an embodiment 60of the method according to the present disclosure in an NRF 11 of a 5GSBA 1, comprising an NRF management entity or service, i.e.Nnrf_NFManagement service 61, and an NRF discovery entity or service,i.e. Nnrf_NFDiscovery service 63.

The Nnrf_NFManagement service 61 registers a service producer or serviceprovider NF 25 with the NRF 11, by providing the service profile of theservice producer NF 26 to the NRF 11, and the NRF 11 marks the serviceproducer NF 25 as being available.

The Nnrf_NFDiscovery service 63 enables a service consumer NF 26 todiscover a set of NF service instances of a specific NF service or atarget NF type. The Nnrf_NFDiscovery service 63 may also enables an NFservice to discover another specific NF service.

Table 1 below provides an overview of present service definitionsaccording to the 5G SBA standard provisions. The service operationsmentioned in table 1 allow an NF or NF services to communicate with theNRF 11.

TABLE 1 Service Service Operation Example Service Name OperationsSemantics Consumer(s) Nnrf_ NFRegister Request/ AMF, SMF, UDM,NFManagement Response AUSF, NEF, PCF, SMSF, NSSF NFUpdate Request/ AMF,SMF, UDM, Response AUSF, NEF, PCF, SMSF, NSSF NFDeregister Request/ AMF,SMF, UDM, Response AUSF, NEF, PCF, SMSF, NSSF NFStatus- Subscribe/ AMF,SMF, PCF, Subscribe Notify NEF, NSSF, SMSF, AUSF NFStatusNotify AMF,SMF, PCF, NEF, NSSF, SMSF, AUSF NFStatus- AMF, SMF, PCF, UnSubscribeNEF, NSSF, SMSF, AUSF Nnrf_ Request Request/ AMF, SMF, PCF, NFDiscoveryResponse NEF, NSSF, SMSF, AUSF

In addition to these known NRF services, the present disclosure proposesa new service, i.e. a service instance selection entity or service,Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector, 62. This proposed Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62may be modelled as a separate Third Generation Partnership Project,3GPP, SBA service or it may also be provided as a part of the alreadyexisting Nnrf_NFDiscovery 63 service. The newly proposedNnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 may have the following service operations asshown in table 2 below.

TABLE 2 Service Service Operation Name Operations SemanticsNnrf_NFInstanceSelector Select Request/Response Update Request/Response

According to the embodiment 60, the service producer 25 registers 71 itsservice instances with the Nnrf_NFManagement 61. This may be done by anexisting Nnrf_NFManagement Register operation, however the data providedcomprises additional information, according to the present disclosure aspart of the Service profile, i.e.:

-   -   Consistency Group information: this identifies services        instances of respective services, regardless whether they are        defined within the same NF or a Virtual NF, VNF, that share the        same state.    -   Proximity information: this identifies where the service        instances are deployed in the SBA. At least the following        proximity levels may be identified: Data Center, Region,        GeoArea.

The service producer or service provider 25 receives a confirmation oran acknowledgement 72 of the registration 71 from the Nnrf_NFManagement61. When a service consumer 26 wants to consume a service provided bythe service provider 25, then it needs to discover 73, through theNnrf_NFDiscovery 63, an instance of the service provided by the serviceproducer 25. The present disclosure proposes, in response to such aservice request, to always provide a single instance of the serviceprovider 25.

To this end, the Nnrf_NFDiscovery 63 requests 74 with theNnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 to provide the most suitable serviceinstance, according to previously stored service selection criteria.These service selection criteria include service selection criteriapertaining to a particular service consumer 26, such as geographicinformation, and other non-functional service instance requirementspertaining to service instance selection taking account of loaddistribution and overload protection, scaling in/out based on trafficdemands, ensuring data consistency in case of failures and georedundancy, as well as potentially other deployment or robustnessservice instance selection requirements.

Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 may retrieve 75 all service producer 25instance service profiles of a requested service, that include valuesmeeting the selection criteria, and selects the most appropriate serviceinstance.

In a subsequent step 76, the Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 provides anidentification of the selected service producer 25 instance toNnrf_NFDiscovery 63 for communicating 77 to the service consumer 26. Asan alternative, the Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 may provide the entireservice instance profile, thereby avoiding additional overheadsignalling. Then, the Nnrf_NFDiscovery 63 receives the selected serviceinstance profile for communicating to the service consumer 26.

In further steps 78, 79, the service consumer 26 may subscribe tochanges in the service instances profile of the service producer 25.

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates consistency groups and proximitylevels. Consistency groups 87, 88, 89 identify all the service instances33, regardless whether they are defined within a same NF, that share thesame state, and are able to recover in case of failure, for example,using a stored state in a shared state repository 31, 32. Proximitylevels identify where the service instances are deployed. At least datacentre 84, 85, 86, or region 82, 83 or geographical area 81 proximitylevels are identified.

Providing that the consistency groups not only group one or severalinstances of the same service, but also apply to instances of differentservices, allows services that in fact share some data among then. Ifthe services are always defined within the same consistency group,ensures that both services can access the shared data. An example of twodependent services in 5G SBA is, for example, Npcf_PolicyAuthorizationand Npcf_SMPolicyControl.

Where are kept within the same Data Context, DC, is an example. Thereare options where the same data could be replicated between differentDCs, this means that the consistency groups may be extended. This mayresult in two types of consistency groups (or values): async and sync,for example.

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates an implementation 100 of a furtherembodiment of the method according to the present disclosure. In themethod illustrated by reference numeral 100, instead of using existingNnrf_NFManagement 61 and Nnrf_NFDiscovery 63 services, it is proposed todefine new services as follows:

a) Nnrf_NFRegistration 101, employing only Request/Response operations.The subscribe/notify operations are offered by Nnrf_NFDiscovery 103.

b) Nnrf_NFDiscovery 103 also includes subscribe/Notify operations inorder to subscribe to changes in the service profile of a serviceproducer 25.

c) Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 has similar functions as describedpreviously.

An overview of the functions of the proposed NRF are provided in table 3below.

Service Service Operation Name Operations Semantics Nnrf_ RegisterRequest/Response NFRegistration Update Request/Response DeregisterRequest/Response Nnrf_ Request Request/Response NFDiscoveryProfileSubscribe Subscribe/Notify ProfileNotify ProfileUnSubscribe Nnrf_Select Request/Response NFInstanceSelector Update Request/Response

Step 111 in FIG. 8 is similar to step 71 as explained in reference withFIG. 6 . The Nnrf_NFRegistration service 101 needs to store serviceprofile information in a permanent storage. It is proposed in thisdisclosure to store this information in the Unified Data Repository,UDR, 102 of the SBA in the form of new information that could beaccessible by other consumers. In fact, this is a possible way to solvea multivendor issue when the services are not bundled with an NF, sincethe information that is required to be stored by Nnrf_NFRegistration 101is the one expected to be read by Nnrf_NFDiscovery 103 in steps 113/114.This will be possible only if both services are bundled into the same NFand both are from the same vendor, since the data to be stored is notstandardized.

The UDR 102 may be part of the UDM 13 in a 5G SBA, for example. Bystoring service profile information in the UDR 102, and standardize itsaccess, then both the registration and discovery services becomeindependent, and the stored data will be as well accessible by otherpotential consumers, i.e. providing for a multi-vendor solution.

Steps 113, 114 in FIG. 8 are similar to steps 73, 74 explained inconnection with FIG. 6 , and are not further elaborated here. In steps115, 116, the Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 gets from the UDR 102 allservice producer 25 instance service profiles that include values forrespective selection criteria, like consistency data and proximitylevel, and it gets selection criteria information and priorityinformation applicable for a service consumer 26 to select a relevantservice producer 25.

Based on this information, Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 finds thecorresponding service producer 25 service instance. The step 117 issimilar to step 76 in that the Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 provides anidentification of the service producer 25 service instance toNnrf_NFDiscovery 103. In a further step 118, the Nnrf_NFDiscovery 103gets a selected service instance profile from the UDR 102. Subsequently,the Nnrf_NFDiscovery 103 subscribes 119 to receive a notification fromthe UDR 102 when there are changes to selected service instance profile.

In the step 120, the Nnrf_NFdiscovery 103 provides the service consumer26 with the required information from the selected service producer 25instance profile. The service consumer 26 again may subscribe 121 tochanges in service producer 25 instance profile information.

The proposal according to the present embodiment also requires thatinformation in UDR 102 is updated. The following information may need tobe updated:

a) Available service provider instances:

Service profiles are updated into UDR 102, by registration of newinstances, update of profile of registered instances, and deregistrationof instances that are no longer providing service.

b) Service consumer selection criteria:

For each service consumer 26, the selection criteria such as theconsistency group and proximity level, as well as a priority among otherfactors that may be different for each service provider have to beconfigured in the UDR 102, by using Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62.Selection criteria could as well be updated/configured by an authorizedOperations and Maintenance, O&M, entity (not shown in figure), eitherdirectly in the UDR 102, or by using Nnrf_NFInstanceSelector 62 service.

FIG. 9 schematically illustrates an example of a service discovery andselection function device 150 according to the present disclosure, foroperating in a telecommunications environment, such as a 5G SBA shown inFIG. 1 , for example. The device 150 comprises a receiver module 151,having an input 152 and a transmitter module 153, having an output 154.The receiver and transmitter modules 151, 153 are arranged forexchanging service related data between the NRF 150 and serviceproducers or service providers, service consumers and an O&M entity orcenter, and a UDR, such as service profile information data, serviceselection criteria data and other data required for communicationpurposes.

The receiver and transmitter modules 151, 53 may be arranged foroperating in accordance with HyperText TransferProtocol/REpresentational State Transfer, HTTP/REST, data transfertechnology, over the control plane in an SBA network, for example. Thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that the receiver and transmittermodules 151, 153 may be implemented as a single transceiver module, forexample.

The device 150 comprises a memory or storage 155, a registering module156, arranged for operating as management entity or registration entity,for example, and arranged for registering a service profile 157 of aservice and service instances provided by at least one service producer,such as an NF operating in an SBA. The service profile 157, amongothers, comprises consistency group information and proximityinformation of service instances of a service, in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

The device 150 further comprises a discovery module 158, arranged foroperating as discovery entity, for example, for receiving a servicerequest of a service consumer and identifying a single selected serviceinstance to the service consumer. Service instances are selected by aselecting module 159 of the device 150, arranged for operating asservice instance selection entity, for example, for selecting, from theservice profile 157 of a requested service, a single service instancefor a service consumer, based on service selection criteria forselecting service instances registered with the device 150, whichselection criteria may be stored, for example, in the memory or storage156.

The storage or memory 156 may further store context data or stateinformation pertaining to a particular service instance, for example,and other intermediate data values and/or a computer program productwhich when executed by a processor 160 causes the device 150 to performa method according to an aspect of the present disclosure. All theinternal components of the device 150 communicate with one another usingan internal data bus 161.

Other variations to the disclosed examples can be understood andeffected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimeddisclosure, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure and theappended claims. In the claims, the word “comprising” does not excludeother elements or steps, and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does notexclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfil thefunctions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact thatcertain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims doesnot indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used toadvantage. A computer program may be stored/distributed on a suitablemedium, such as an optical storage medium or a solid state mediumsupplied together with or as part of other hardware, but may also bedistributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired orwireless telecommunication systems. Any reference signs in the claimsshould not be construed as limiting scope thereof.

The present disclosure is not limited to the examples as disclosedabove, and can be modified and enhanced by those skilled in the artbeyond the scope of the present disclosure as disclosed in the appendedclaims without having to apply inventive skills and for use in any datacommunication, data exchange and data processing environment.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of operating a service discoveryand selection function in a telecommunications system, said methodcomprising the steps of: registering, with said service discovery andselection function, a service profile of a service provided by at leastone service producer, said service profile among others comprisingconsistency group information and proximity information, wherein saidconsistency group information identifies instances of said servicesharing a same state and stored in a shared state repository and saidproximity information identifying deployment of said service instances;selecting, by said service discovery and selection function, from saidservice profile, a single service instance of said service for a serviceconsumer requesting said service, based on service selection criteriaaccessible to said service discovery and selection function;identifying, by said service discovery and selection function, saidselected service instance to said service consumer, and subscribing, bysaid service discovery and selection function, to receive a notificationfrom a unified data repository (UDR) when there are changes to saidselected service instance profile, wherein said proximity informationidentifies proximity levels of a respective service instance by allowingto select said service instance based on geographical distance of the atleast one service producer or a service provider and the serviceconsumer, for optimizing network resources and signalling latency. 2.The method according to claim 1, wherein said consistency groupinformation comprises a plurality of consistency groups and a respectiveconsistency group identifies all instances of a service or differentservices sharing a same state and stored in a shared state repository.3. The method according to claim 1, wherein state information of arespective service instance is stored at a state repository accessibleto said service discovery and selection function.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said service discovery and selectionfunction comprises a management entity, a discovery entity, and aservice instance selection entity, wherein said registering is performedat said management entity, requesting said service by a service consumerand identifying said selected service instance to said service consumeris performed at said discovery entity, and selecting a service instanceis performed at said service instance selection entity.
 5. The methodaccording to claim 4, wherein said service profile and said serviceselection criteria are stored at said management entity, wherein saidservice instance selection entity accesses said management entity forselecting said service instance.
 6. The method according to claim 4,wherein said service profile is stored at said management entity andsaid service selection criteria are stored at said service instanceselection entity, wherein said service instance selection entityaccesses said management entity for selecting said service instance. 7.The method according claim 1, wherein said service discovery andselection function comprises a registration entity, a discovery entity,and a service instance selection entity, having access to said unifieddata repository (UDR) of said telecommunication, wherein said UDRstoring service profiles and service selection criteria, saidregistering is performed at said registration entity storing saidservice profile at said UDR, requesting said service by a serviceconsumer and identifying said selected service instance to said serviceconsumer is performed at said discovery entity, and selecting a serviceinstance is performed at said service instance selection entity byaccessing said service profile and service selection criteria stored atsaid UDR.
 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein state informationof a respective service instance is stored at said UDR.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 4, wherein said service instance selection entity isperformed as part of said discovery entity.
 10. The method according toclaim 4, wherein any of said management entity, discovery entity,service instance selection entity and registration entity are performedas a service by said service discovery and selection function.
 11. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein said service discovery andselection function registers service profile changes pertaining to aregistered service profile from a service producer.
 12. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein said service discovery and selectionfunction provides service profile changes pertaining to a selectedservice instance to said service consumer.
 13. The method according toclaim 1, wherein said service producer and said service consumer are anyone of a service provided by said telecommunications system, a NetworkFunction (NF) of said telecommunications system, a server operating withsaid telecommunications system, and a node operating in saidtelecommunications system.
 14. A service discovery and selectionfunction device, arranged for operating in a telecommunications system,said service discovery and selection function device comprising: aregistering processor, arranged for registering a service profile of aservice provided by at least one service producer of saidtelecommunications system, said service profile among others comprisingconsistency group information and proximity information, wherein saidconsistency group information identifies instances of said servicesharing a same state and stored in a shared state repository and saidproximity information identifying deployment of said service instancesin said telecommunications system; a selecting processor, arranged forselecting, from said service profile, a single service instance of saidservice for a service consumer of said telecommunications systemrequesting said service, based on service selection criteria accessibleto said service discovery and selection function; a discovery processor,arranged for identifying, by said service discovery and selectionfunction, said selected service instance to said service consumer, andsubscribing to receive a notification from a unified data repository(UDR) when there are changes to said selected service instance profile,wherein said proximity information identifies proximity levels of arespective service instance by allowing to select said service instancebased on geographical distance of the at least one service producer or aservice provider and the service consumer, for optimizing networkresources and signalling latency.
 15. A computer program product,comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storinginstructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause theat least one processor to carry out the method according to claim 1.